Sing and Swing Along With.../Evolution of the Blues Song - Dave Lambert & Jon Hendricks

• 'What Lambert Hendricks & Ross did was difficult to the verge of impossibility. Indeed, the only thing that proved it possible at all is that they actually did it. And watching them - even more than just listening to them on records - gave one some of the pleasure of watching great gymnasts. And the more one knew about singing, the more amazing it was.' Gene Lees

• Our edition combines two jazz concept albums, long out of print long-players recorded in 1960 by Dave Lambert and Jon Hendricks, two of the original members of the pioneering vocalese trio Lambert Hendricks and Ross.

• Lambert and Hendricks began working together in 1955, complementing their shared interest in pushing the boundaries of vocal jazz by writing arrangements and lyrics respectively. Soon they recruited Scottish vocalist Annie Ross and in 1958 the trio released Sing A Song of Basie. The album was stupendous and took the world by storm. Melody Maker voted them the Best Vocal Group In The World five years in a row. Their work would also prove influential and Double Six, The Swingle Singers and Manhattan Transfer are amongst those that owe a debt to LHR.

• Dave Lambert's album of improvisations is a gem of particular rarity as he would die tragically on a Connecticut roadside in October 1966. Although Annie Ross had been out of the group since 1962 (replaced by Yolande Bevan) LHR would effectively die with him.

• For his work as a lyricist, jazz critic and historian Leonard Feather called Jon Hendricks the "Poet Laureate of Jazz" while Time Magazine dubbed him the "James Joyce of Jive."

• As striking as any of his musical achievements, Evolution of the Blues Song was written by Hendricks for the 1960 Monterey Jazz Festival and written on the spot. Legend has it that the performance received a twenty minute standing ovation.

• The work generated enormous interest, on the modified and augmented version that graces this edition Hendricks narrates and sings with contributions from Jimmy Witherspoon, "Big" Miller, "Pony" Poindexter, Ike Issacs and the Hannah Dean Chorus. The recording was made in Los Angeles before the revue was staged at the Broadway Theatre in San Francisco where it ran for five years.

• This CD is released 21st April and will not be shipped prior to this date.

Track Listing:

SING AND SWING ALONG WITH DAVE LAMBERT
1. ALL ALONE
2. THE BEST THING FOR YOU
3. AUTUMN NOCTURNE
4. BLUES
5. WE COULD MAKE SUCH BEAUTIFUL MUSIC TOGETHER
6. SHORT BLUES AROUND THE BROADWAY BRIDGE
7. LOVER COME BACK TO ME
8. YESTERDAY'S GARDENIAS
9. OVER THE WEEKEND
10. YESTERDAYS

• Christopher Logue wrote screenplay's for The End of Arthur's Marriage, a Wednesday Play directed in the mid-sixties by Ken Loach and for Ken Russell's effervescent biopic of the sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. As an actor, again for Russell, took the roles of Cardinal Richelieu in The Devils and the poet Swinburne in the Monitor film about the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

• His poem War Music was begun as part of a BBC commission toward a modern rendering of parts of Homer's Iliad. The project would become his pre-occupation for more than four decades.

• Here, Logue's poetry is set to jazz music arranged by Tony Kinsey and Stanley Myers and sung brilliantly effect by Annie Ross at Peter Cook's Soho club, The Establishment.

• Ross was the logical choice for this; a friend, she had, with extraordinary power, timing and wit, established herself both with some memorable solo recordings and in the finest vocal jazz group of the day, Lambert Hendricks and Ross. In the opinion of many, Ross is the finest British female jazz vocalist of all time and her performance on Loguerhythms is surely amongst her best work, harnessing perfectly the nuances of Logue's pithy invective.

• Loguerhythms was preceded in 1959 by the extended play recording, Red Bird: Jazz and Poetry, performed by Logue himself and based on a loose adaptation of Pablo Neruda's Twenty Love Poems, recorded by George Martin, with jazz arrangements by Tony Kinsey and Bill LeSage.

• This edition combines Loguerhythms and Red Bird, making these extraordinary recordings available for the first time on compact disc.

NB: This title is released July 21 and will not be dispatched before this date.

Track Listing:

ANNIE ROSS –
LOGUERHYTHMS
1. BELLINI
2. THE BALLAD OF THE WATER AND THE FLAME
3. THE ASS' SONG
4. THE LIBERAL MAN
5. JOHNNY
6. SICK MAN
7. THINGS
8. HE
9. GO TO THE WALL
10. THE BALLAD OF THE APE AND THE JUDGE
11. THE GENERAL
12. WESTERN LADIES

• Stephanie Mills was a native New Yorker having been born and brought up in the borough of Brooklyn. She first tasted success as a singer at the age of 9, winning the famed Apollo Theatre's amateur hour several weeks in a row, which opened the doors to Broadway as a cast member in "Maggie Flynn” and as opening act for The Isley Brothers. Mills big break came in 1975 when she landed the lead role of Dorothy in the critically acclaimed Broadway musical "The Wiz,” based on The Wizard Of Oz. Jermaine Jackson was suitably impressed and was instrumental in helping her get signed to Motown Records to record her second album after "Movin' In The Right Direction” on ABC records in 1974.

• FOR THE FIRST TIME saw Mills team up with legendary song writing, arranging and production duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David, ironically for the last time they would work on the same project together. Given the medium in which she came to prominence the classic standards of Bacharach and David were perfectly suited to Mills theatrical voice as she performs the collection with effortless ease, running the full gamut of emotions alongside the understated and beautifully orchestrated contemporary arrangements. Mills talents come to the fore on tracks such as ‘I Took My Strength From You,’ ‘No One Remembers My Name’ and the single ‘This Empty Place.’

• Alongside FOR THE FIRST TIME Mills 1982 album ‘Love Has Lifted Me,’ (recordings from later Motown sessions that were held back) appears as the bonus tracks on this release. BBR is very proud to present FOR THE FIRST TIME, expertly remastered and complete with extensive liner notes and bonus tracks. Essential listening for all R&B, Soul, Pop and Quiet Storm fans.

N.B. This album is released August 4 and will not be dispatched before this date.

Track List:

1. I TOOK MY STRENGTH FROM YOU
2. LIVING ON PLASTIC
3. NO ONE REMEMBERS MY NAME
4. IF YOU CAN LEARN HOW TO CRY
5. LONELINESS REMEMBERS (WHAT HAPPINESS FORGETS)
6. THIS EMPTY PLACE
7. THE WAY I FEEL ABOUT YOU
8. I SEE YOU FOR THE FIRST TIME
9. ALL THE WAY TO PARADISE
10. PLEASE LET GO

BONUS TRACKS
11. LOVE HAS LIFTED ME
12. LOVE IS EVERYWHERE
13. I DON'T WANT TO BE REMINDED
14. YOU ARE THE MELODY OF MY LIFE
15. I HOPE WE DON'T RUN OUT OF MUSIC
16. THE KINGDOM WITHIN EVERYONE
17. THIS SIMPLE MASTERPIECE